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Community online newsFri, 07 Dec 2018 18:28:11 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8FOIA guide: University of Illinoishttps://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2016/10/13/foia-guide-university-of-illinois/
https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2016/10/13/foia-guide-university-of-illinois/#respondThu, 13 Oct 2016 20:30:33 +0000http://cu-citizenaccess.org/?p=1010324The University of Illinois almost always takes its allowed five business days to respond to a Freedom of Information Request and frequently asks for an extension of five days because of the sheer amount of volume of Freedom of Information requests.

If you are looking for information about a specific campus or the university as a whole, it is useful to make that clear in your request.

A great deal of information about the university is kept on websites available to the public, so they are often worth checking out before you file a request. The Division of Management Information website keeps information about enrollment figures, admissions information and faculty and staff size, among other information.

This is a request under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, 5 ILCS 140.

I am requesting:

(The information that you are requesting).

Please waive any applicable fees. Release of the information is in the public interest because it will contribute significantly to public understanding of government operations and activities. In addition, this work may appear on the online newsroom website, CU-CitizenAccess.org, and may be shared with the News-Gazette and Illinois Public Media.

Thus, I am requesting a fee waiver for any potential costs, as the release of information will be published for public interest. If a fee waiver cannot be granted, please inform me of all costs before further processing the request.

If the request is denied in whole or part, we ask that you justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the act. We will also expect you to release all segregable portions of otherwise exempt material. We, of course, reserve the right to appeal your decision to withhold any information or to deny a waiver of fees.

Please let me know if you have questions, and if I can do anything to expedite this request.
I look forward to hearing from you by (five business days) as required by state law.

Thank you for your assistance,

Name

Affiliation

Phone number

Email address

]]>https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2016/10/13/foia-guide-sample-letter/feed/0FOIA guide: Local law enforcementhttps://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2016/10/13/foia-guide-local-law-enforcement/
https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2016/10/13/foia-guide-local-law-enforcement/#respondThu, 13 Oct 2016 20:15:44 +0000http://cu-citizenaccess.org/?p=1010333There are four departments that work to police the Champaign-Urbana community. When requesting information, it is often beneficial to get the same data from each department in order to get the full picture.

FOIA Officer:
The County has different FOIA Officers for each department. You can see the full list here.
If you are unsure who to file the request with, you can send requests to:
Richard S. Snider
County Administrator
1776 East Washington, Urbana, IL 61802
Rsnider@co.champaign.il.us
217-384-3776

Reporter’s notes:
A fair amount of data is also available on the county website.
Budgets dating back to 2006 can be found here.
Information about requests for proposals and requests for qualifications can be found here.
Property tax records can be found here.
Assessment records for properties can be found here.

Reporter’s notes:
The Champaign city government keeps very little information on its website, though many city departments, including neighborhood services, the public works and the planning department, are happy to share information with the public without a Freedom of Information Request. Council meetings are archived online and a lot of information can be found by searching through reports to council, though they can be difficult to find if you aren’t sure the date the issue was discussed.

Reporter’s notes:
Urbana maintains an Open Data Portal with quite a bit of city information, from police incidents and nuisance complaints to budget expenditure information. Much of the data is scraped from city documents, though much data is also static.
You can find information about request for proposals and request for qualifications here.

]]>https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2016/10/13/foia-guide-municipal-and-city-governments/feed/0Homeowners pay for errors in outdated flood mapshttps://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2015/02/25/homeowners-pay-for-errors-in-outdated-flood-maps/
https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2015/02/25/homeowners-pay-for-errors-in-outdated-flood-maps/#respondWed, 25 Feb 2015 19:51:45 +0000http://cu-citizenaccess.org/?p=1001668Chris and Barb Genzel have lived in the same house in Urbana for nearly 40 years and they say their house has never flooded.

“Behind our house is a farm at a lower elevation, and our house backs up to a drainage ditch. We knew we were never going to flood,” Chris Genzel said recently.

Photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess.orgA view looking south on Vine Street in Urbana from the viaduct between Main and University on Tuesday, February 3, 2015. Although it is at a higher elevation, it recently was included in a flood plain as a result of new mapping.

But according to U.S. government flood maps, their home is in a 100-year flood plain, putting it at high risk of flooding.

That map error is one of many in the Champaign-Urbana area and is the result of old data being used for new flood maps by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. The errors have caused a multitude of problems across the nation.

In 2004, FEMA began updating flood maps by digitizing the flood maps to make them more accurate, said Sally McConkey, flood plain map manager at the Illinois State Water Survey. McConkey is based in Coordinated Hazard Assessment and Mapping Program and is also a civil engineer who serves on FEMA’s Technical Mapping Advisory Council.

Champaign County was one of the 78 counties in Illinois that received the new flood maps. However, not all of the 102 counties in Illinois received updated flood maps.

“It’s sort of a necessary evil to reissue maps with older data on them,” said McConkey, noting that FEMA ran out of money before it updated every map.

“Initially there was this big push to get these maps that were 30 and 40 years out-of-date corrected. There was a presidential initiative for a billion dollars spaced out over four and a half, five years and that was called map modernization,” said McConkey.

Online Flood Maps

But McConkey said the funding has been declining and the project has a lower priority.

“And we think that having funding for flood plain mapping should be a very high priority because it’s the one natural disaster that the costs are going up every year for our nation, our taxpayers’ dollars and it’s the most predictable natural disaster,” McConkey said.

Chris Genzel said although he was never concerned about his home flooding, he was concerned about his children one day inheriting the expensive problem of purchasing costly flood insurance if they decided to sell their parents’ home.

So, in June, the Genzels filed a letter with FEMA asking their home be removed from the flood plain. The application, known as a Letter of Map Amendment, or a LOMA, cost the Genzels about $1,000.

The elderly couple considered the letter a future investment, and after several days of having their property surveyed and approved by a FEMA Geographic Information System analyst, the flood maps were revised. But only the Genzels’ home and a neighbor’s home were removed from the flood plain mapped in their area. Others in the neighborhood were not removed because they did not file applications.

Dozens of letters being filed

Rex Bradfield is the civil engineer and land surveyor who helped the Genzels get their home out of the flood plain. Architects, engineers or a certified land surveyor are allowed to conduct inspections for letters amendments.

Bradfield says he files, on average, about 30 letters for homes in the Champaign-Urbana area each year with FEMA.

Bradfield says that even though the flood maps have been updated, there are still major inaccuracies. For example, the Schnucks supermarket company parking lot on Vine Street in Urbana is elevated about 15 feet on a hill, but is located next to a low-level viaduct that floods frequently.

According to the flood maps, the Schnucks parking lot and the even higher elevated building beside it are in flood zones.

“It is highly unlikely that either of these buildings will ever have flooding issues,” Bradfield said.

Bradfield said the biggest map inaccuracies occur in the rural areas.

Maps miss flooding areas

Cindy Simpson, who is a business owner in Hindsboro, just south of Champaign County, knows the other impact of bad flood maps — not being able to get federal flood insurance.

Simpson’s business, Stumble Inn, flooded in 2008 after six inches of water flowed throughout her business. Simpson estimates the overall damage costs were close to $30,000 after she and her husband replaced the floors, drywall and several major appliances.

“I had to borrow money from my in-laws, friends, we took out loans from the bank, we had to rebuild all of it ourselves,” said Simpson. “FEMA came out and did some research on the area after the flood, but we weren’t eligible for the disaster assistance.”

According to the maps, which can be found on FEMA.gov, Stumble Inn is considered to be in a very low-risk flooding zone.

Simpson says since she left her job at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001 to open Stumble Inn, her business has flooded four times.

“I just keep rebuilding. That’s all I can do. This is all I’ve got and I love this place,” said Simpson.

Paul Osman, the state national flood insurance program coordinator for Illinois, said insurance is generally needed by someone in every county and “that every county in Illinois has been declared a flood disaster since 1978. There’s not a year that goes by that there isn’t a flooding disaster somewhere in the state.”

Osman said Illinois has the largest inland system of rivers slates and streams in the whole nation. Fifteen percent of the total land area in Illinois is made up of flood plains and the Ohio River and the Mississippi River come to a point in the southern tip of Illinois. According to Osman, “Essentially the entire nation drains down through Illinois.”

770 communities and 82 counties in Illinois participate in the National Flood Insurance Program. The program covers up to $500,000 for commercial structures and $250,000 for homeowners.

Photo by Tiffany JolleyThe Healey St. detention basin of the Boneyard Creek watershed nearly flooded after six inches of rain fell in just three hours over Champaign-Urbana. Photo taken July 12, 2014.

Not enough insurance

According to McConkey and Osman, it is a large misconception that flood insurance alone is enough to recover after a flood.

“If you are flooded, your homeowner’s insurance does not cover it. If you get a federally declared disaster and you get individual insurance, that does not put you back on your feet,” said McConkey.

That’s because having national flood insurance is about making sure a federally backed mortgage is covered. It is not intended to help recipients fully rebuild after a natural disaster.

But the current model is not sustainable.

“The problem is that the National Flood Insurance Program is broke. These last few huge disasters, Katrina and Sandy, have really taxed the flood insurance program. So the entire program now is about $23 billion dollars in debt,” said Osman.

Photo by Tiffany JolleyMany vehicles, including semi-trucks, were stalled in the flooded roadways. Photo taken July 12, 2014.

These natural disasters have placed FEMA and the National Flood Insurance Program on the Government Accountability Office’s high-risk list since 2006.

According to a report by the Government Accountability Office conducted last year, FEMA’s premium rate setting does not reflect the actual risk of flood damage. In 2013, FEMA collected $3.8 billion in premiums, and insured $1.3 trillion in property. FEMA tried to eliminate discounted flood insurance subsidies in its rate setting model, but those changes were repealed less than one year later.

Updated March 13, 2015: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the National Insurance Flood Program provides up to $250,000 in flood coverage for commercial structures and $100,000 for residential structures. The program provides up to $500,000 on commercial structures and $250,000 on residential structures. The article also stated that fifty percent of Illinois land area is designated in being in flood plains. The correct amount is 15 percent. In addition, the article stated that only certified land surveyors are allowed to do inspections for letters of amendment to flood maps. Architects and engineers also can do inspections. This story has been updated to reflect the corrections.

]]>https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2015/02/25/homeowners-pay-for-errors-in-outdated-flood-maps/feed/0How to track contributions to state and local candidateshttps://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/10/24/how-to-track-contributions-to-state-and-local-candidates/
https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/10/24/how-to-track-contributions-to-state-and-local-candidates/#respondFri, 24 Oct 2014 20:13:44 +0000http://cu-citizenaccess.org/?p=1001761The Illinois State Board of Elections web site is packed with data on contributions to state and local candidates and on how those candidates spend their money. So we thought that CU-CitizenAccess.org would offer a quick tutorial in how to find that information yourself.

Figure 1Move your cursor towards the top middle and click on “Candidates” to get going. When you click on that, you will get this screen as show in Figure-2.Figure 2Move your cursor towards the middle of the page and click on “Campaign Disclosure”, located within the “Welcome Candidates” list. After clicking, you will see a screen that looks like Figure-3.Figure 3Located in the middle of the page, listed under “Campaign Disclosure: Information for Candidates”, move your mouse to “Candidate Search” and click on it. After clicking, you will see a screen that looks like Figure-4.Figure 4When you get that screen, move the cursor to the “Last or Only Name” line and click on the downward arrow next to “Starts with” as show in Figure-5. You will get a choice of “Matches,” “Starts With,” and “Contains.”Figure 5You want to pick “Contains” because that means you only need to know part of a name to get a result. You can do that with the “First Name” line too as shown in Figure-6.In this case, we put in the name of Donald Dodds, who is frequent contributor to political campaigns. But you can choose any name for this example in any particular state or local race and see what you get. If you want see some very large contributions pick a big donor from the governor’s race.

To see candidates for Congress or for the President you will need to go to the Federal Elections Commission http://www.fec.gov/pindex.shtml or the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group http://www.opensecrets.org/ that has been collecting and analyzing federal election data for decades.

Figure 6We hit the search button and get back the result shown in Figure-7. You can see there were 28 contributions listed that totaled $11,575.Figure 7This is a first step in beginning to look up contributors. If you go back to the selection screen as shown in Figure-5, you see you can narrow your search criteria by many categories, ranging from city or state or occupation or year and so on.

Checking out contributions and expenditures by candidates

There are many ways to look up candidates and seeing who contributed to the candidate and how the candidate has spent the contributions. But one easy way is to use the search box on the home page of the State Board of Elections.

We return to the home page and type in the last name of Don Gerard, the former mayor of city of Champaign, who is running for re-election, as shown in Figure-8.

Figure 8We hit the search button and we get the screen shown in Figure-9.Figure 9We see we get the choice of only Don Gerard because there is no one else with “Gerard” in their name running for office. We click on “Don Gerard” and we get a choice of ways to look at contributions as shown in Figure-10.Figure 10We could check only contributions by and to Don Gerard, but we also want to see expenditures.The best way to do that is to look at filings by political committees since candidates run their campaigns by committee. So we click on the “Candidates with political committees for: Don Gerard” and we get the result shown in Figure-11.
Figure 11We click on Don Gerard and we get the screen shown in Figure-12, where we see the detail on the candidate and the name of his committee. It shows his committee is “Friends of Don Gerard.”Figure 12We click on Friend of Don Gerard and now we have a series of filings to look at as shown in Figure-13. Let’s pick the quarterly filing near the top.Figure 13When we pick the quarterly filing we get more detail on contributions and expenditures during the time period of July 1, 2014 through September 30, 2014, as shown in Figure-14.Figure 14We will choose the “Itemized” list of contributions and the results are in Figure-15.Figure 15The list goes on for six pages that you can scroll through. After doing that you can return to the previous page and choose the itemized expenditures as show in Figure-16.Figure 16By choosing “Itemized Expenditures” you can get a list of what the committee has used the contributions for as shown in Figure-17.Figure 17As you can see, the committee has spent money on a consultant, a fundraiser, banners, and a donation to another candidate. However, that is the first of eight pages of expenditures so there will be more scrolling to do.

Again, this is just a quick start to using the Board of Elections web site. There is much more data to mine and more ways to mine when you have the time.

]]>https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/10/24/how-to-track-contributions-to-state-and-local-candidates/feed/0Despite training and inspections, keeping certified campus housing safe remains constant challengehttps://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/10/02/despite-training-and-inspections-keeping-certified-campus-housing-safe-remains-constant-challenge/
https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/10/02/despite-training-and-inspections-keeping-certified-campus-housing-safe-remains-constant-challenge/#respondThu, 02 Oct 2014 15:43:18 +0000http://cu-citizenaccess.org/?p=1001731For the past month, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been working to teach students what it takes to prevent fires as a part of a national campus fire safety initiative.

Nowhere are those lessons more needed than in the fraternities and sororities that routinely have dozens of fire-safety violations.

A Fire Factor presenter explains the difference between a room with a sprinkler system and a room without a sprinkler system on Sept. 27, 2014. Event staff started a fire in both mock rooms and let the fire burn for three minutes. The room to the left had a sprinkler system installed, while the room to the right did not.

At the Theta Chi fraternity house last fall, Champaign city inspectors found 81 fire and life-safety violations, including holes in bedroom floors and inoperative emergency-exit signs.

At the Chi Psi fraternity house, city inspectors cited 76 violations, including a leaky roof and multiple propped-open fire doors.

Darrell Hoemann / CU-CitizenAccess.org

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign student Joshua Ross learns to use a fire extinguisher at Fire Factor on Sept. 27, 2014. The event took place at the Illinois Fire Service Institute.

At Phi Sigma Kappa, inspectors discovered 69 violations, specifically citing violations for improperly stored propane tanks and for a fire pit located within 10 feet of bushes outside of the house.

Overall, 57 of 61 Greek houses in both Champaign and Urbana had violations during initial fire-safety inspections last fall. Inspectors also examined an additional 15 non-Greek properties, and 14 of them had violations reported during their first inspections.

Inspections for this school year started in September and will likely continue through winter.

The inspections are the core of a university program that certifies houses for being safe to live in. The certification program allows houses to accept second-semester freshman, who are otherwise required to live in dorms.

“You have a new group of people coming into the same building, and they’re bringing their own extension cords, or they’re settings things up that are not safe, so we’re going to find stuff every year,” said Leevey. “The thing is whether they correct them.”

In general, the struggle to keep students safe continues year after year, despite the education efforts on fire safety.

Darrell Hoemann / CU-CitizenAccess.org

A Fire Factor presenter explains the difference between a room with a sprinkler system and a room without a sprinkler system on Sept. 27, 2014. Event staff started a fire in both mock rooms and let the fire burn for three minutes. The room to the left had a sprinkler system installed, while the room to the right did not.

So far this year, Leevey and the Urbana Fire Department have performed more than a dozen fire drills at Urbana Greek houses for free. Champaign also conducts fire drills, but houses have to pay, Leevey said.

To complement the fire drills, Leevey gives a handful of fire-safety presentations each semester. The presentations include information on “all the stuff we’re looking for during an inspection,” along with other tips.

“If we have to go back multiple times, that’s when we like to try to offer them education,” Leevey said.

In addition to the fire department’s efforts, the cities and University make combined efforts to educate residents about fire and life safety. Last week, about 140 students attended the educational event Fire Factor at the Illinois Fire Service Institute.

“They go through stations and actually use fire extinguishers,” said Janet Maupin, deputy fire marshal for the Champaign Fire Department. “They learn a little bit more about how things actually work.”

At Fire Factor, students had the opportunity to attend a session called “Surviving Your Next Night Out,” which focuse on occupancy hazards and evacuation procedure.

For education, a group of students from the University’s School of Art and Design also organized the “Subtract Stupidity Safety Campaign.” The campaign highlights “stupid choices” made by residents that endanger the lives of students, including disabling smoke detectors, propping open doors and pulling false fire alarms.

“Everyone wants to be safe,” Leevey said. “Nobody wants that on their head if they’re making the place unsafe for somebody else.”

The struggle for safety

Sigma Pi, an Urbana fraternity house, exemplifies the struggle to keep students safe.

But many of its other violations were minor, according to Michael Ayalon, national executive director of the Sigma Pi fraternity.

“For that particular chapter, that house is an older house, so one of the issues was just making sure that the house got all the electric up to code,” he said.

Inspection reports show that all violations were corrected at the Sigma Pi house by January.

Champaign and Urbana city staff members conduct the inspections under contracts with the University. Last year, Champaign received $45,408 from the University and inspected 54 properties during initial inspections. Urbana received $27,220 from the University and inspected 22 properties during initial inspections

“Inspectors have technical expertise and they can pull things out,” said David Oliver, code compliance manager for Champaign, “New occupants may not realize they can’t have extension cords.”

“It’s our job to educate those new people,” he added.

Inspectors give tenants inspection schedules and the exact date of planned inspections. Therefore, violations during primary and secondary follow-up inspections occur despite the fact tenants and house managers know when inspectors are coming.

Violations overshadow education efforts

Inspection records show that at least 32 houses still had violations during follow-up inspections last year, and at least seven houses still had violations during a second follow-up inspection.

“I would say 99 percent would be cooperative,” Leevey said. “We do have rare occurrences where we do get a little pushback based on some of the repairs or some of the things we cite as violations.”

One house, Alpha Chi Rho, a Champaign fraternity house, lost its certification for the University’s program this year, according to Mari Anne Brocker-Curry, associate director of housing information at the University.

Before losing its certification, the Alpha Chi Rho house was inspected in October of 2013. During that initial examination, inspectors found 12 violations. For the past three years, Alpha Chi Rho has had one repeated violation for a lack of egress for residents sleeping in one part of the house.

“We made a decision to remove their certification,” Brocker-Curry said earlier this year.

]]>https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/10/02/despite-training-and-inspections-keeping-certified-campus-housing-safe-remains-constant-challenge/feed/0High demand for help depletes funds for local veteranshttps://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/07/25/high-demand-for-help-depletes-funds-for-local-veterans/
https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/07/25/high-demand-for-help-depletes-funds-for-local-veterans/#respondFri, 25 Jul 2014 20:02:42 +0000http://cu-citizenaccess.org/?p=1001759Unable to pay her rent after losing her job, Air Force veteran Anna Robinson turned to the Veterans Assistance Commission in Champaign County last year. She brought her bill to the commission’s office and received $744 in financial assistance that same day.

But when she sought help from the commission again in January to buy a bus pass, Robinson found it was no longer easy.

Agencies & Contacts

The Champaign County Veterans AssistanceCommission helps veterans who need temporary financial assistance pay for things such as groceries, mortgage or rent, and utilities. Veterans are also offered help processing VA claims, military medical records, and finding various forms of assistance such as counseling.

According to the Illinois Military Assistance Act, a county is required to proceed with establishing a veteran assistance commission once two local veteran organizations submit such a petition.

In Champaign County, there is a cap of $350 per month per veteran, and appointments to claim funds, which are distributed on the first of each month in a first come, first served manner, have to be made at the program office.

The office is located in the Brookens Administrative Center, 1776 E. Washington St., Urbana. The program superintendent, Brad Gould, can be reached at (217) 819-3556.

The program gives funds out the first of the month – and even though she caught the earliest bus at 6:20 a.m. to get to the commission’s office – there was already a long line of veterans waiting. Funds ran out before her number was called.

Robinson, a 59 year-old Champaign resident, served as an electronic instructor at the now defunct Chanute Air Force Base from 1984 to 1990. She said she joked with the other veterans in line that the system was like waiting for rations.

“I’m showing up in line like I was on rations in World War II,” she said. “It’s kind of frustrating when I’m trying to work and I have to borrow money from a friend just to get a bus pass.”

The Champaign County Veterans Assistance Commission Program began in December 2012 in response to a state law. The program helps veterans who need temporary financial assistance pay for things such as groceries, mortgage or rent and utilities. Veterans are also offered help processing VA claims, military medical records and finding various forms of assistance such as counseling.

John Maggio, president of the Champaign County Veterans Assistance Commission Board (left) and Bradley P. Gould, superintendent of Champaign County Veteran’s Assistance Commission at the VFW Post 630 Memorial Day ceremonies, May 26, 2014. Photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess.orgThe VFW Post 630 Memorial Day ceremonies, May 26, 2014. Photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess.orgA veteran rest his hand on the mailbox at the VFW Post 630 Memorial Day ceremonies, May 26, 2014. Photo by Darrell Hoemann/CU-CitizenAccess.org

But as more veterans found out about the Champaign County program, its $80,000 a year budget was not enough to meet the demand. Champaign County has more than 11,500 veterans, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate.

In fiscal year 2013, which is December 2012 to November 2013, the commission distributed funds to 185 veterans and helped a total of 696 veterans. It denied funds to 13 veterans, mainly because they were not Champaign County residents.

However, this fiscal year, the commission has already had to turn away 177 veterans, mostly because funds ran out.

“It might cause some of the veterans problems, but that’s the money I have,” said commission superintendent Bradley Gould.

“Last year, no one knew we were here,” he said.

Robbie Walker, a veteran service officer of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in Champaign County, said he refers veterans without federal compensation to the commission because a Veteran Affairs claim process takes a year or more. He said the commission could help “fill the gap.”

But in reports to the county board this year, Gould wrote “VAC was out of funds again in two hours.”

He explained the money shortage each month was a result of the commission’s “equal distribution” policy, introduced in December, which limits the distribution of $6,250 to veterans per month and up to $1,000 per veteran per year. Starting in June, the commission implemented a cap of $350 a month per veteran and gave people waiting in line appointments to come back for their money.

“If I weren’t to divide the money by each month, we would be out of money by March of this year,” Gould said.

Robinson said she was mostly frustrated because the commission should prioritize those with emergencies, not those who arrived at the commission’s office first.

“Mine was legitimate,” she said, “I got documentation of unemployment.”

All commission budgets are controlled by the counties, said Michael Iwanicki, president of the Illinois Association of County Veterans Assistance Commissions and superintendent of the Veterans Assistance Commission in McHenry County.

“Regardless of how they get the money, the county controls the purse,” he said.

Iwanicki said since Champaign is a fairly new commission, it would probably take them some time to build up to the budget they wanted.

“Basically, a veteran assistance commission is a partnership between the county board and the local veteran organizations,” Iwanicki said. “That’s why the commission has to justify its use of its money to the county board.”

Gould expects the county board will raise the commission’s budget for this year during the budget review in August, but the decision is entirely up to the county board.

“There’s never going to be enough funding, let’s put it that way,” Gould said, “But we are going to increase it a little bit to help—I’m not sure by how much, that’s up to the county.”

When the money runs out, Gould points veterans to other programs such as the Salvation Army’s Supportive Services for Veteran Family program, which is funded by the Veterans Affairs. Christy Thompson, case manager of the program, said she receives about five veterans per week referred from the commission and she sends one to two people a day to the VAC.

“When we run out of money, we let them know; when they run out of money, they let us know,” Thompson said. “Basically we worked together to try to make sure every veteran possible is taken care of.”

Between the two programs, the demands are still high. Thompson said 45 households are currently on the waiting list for the Salvation Army’s Homeless Prevention program. This program has a high budget for critical cases, like helping with evictions and homeless veterans, while the commission is for temporary assistance of “category one” cases.

Robinson said the reason she turned to the commission in the first place was because she had no record of needing assistance. She said the Salvation Army program, geared towards keeping veterans and their families from homelessness, is hard to get any money from. She said she hoped more veterans found out about the commission program and are able to utilize it.

“It took us about 4 years to set up this program, even though they were required to approve it,” Maggio said, “but they just kept dragging their feet.”

So far, 47 counties in Illinois out of 102 have implemented veterans assistance commissions programs. According to the Illinois Military Assistance Act, a county is required to proceed with establishing a veteran assistance commission once two local veteran organizations submit such a petition.

There is no question in Robinson’s mind that the programs are needed.

“Everyone is one step away from catastrophe,” Robinson said, “sometimes only 30 or 50 dollars can be like a million bucks to you.”

]]>https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/07/25/high-demand-for-help-depletes-funds-for-local-veterans/feed/0Yellow placards go missing in first six months of new systemhttps://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/05/01/yellow-placards-go-missing-in-first-six-months-of-new-system/
https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/05/01/yellow-placards-go-missing-in-first-six-months-of-new-system/#respondThu, 01 May 2014 15:27:43 +0000http://cu-citizenaccess.org/?p=1001729

Nearly two dozen restaurants in Champaign-Urbana have failed health inspections during the past three months. But most customers would not know that, despite new requirements that restaurants post results of their inspections.

Under a new notification system that began Jan. 1, restaurants and food establishments in Champaign-Urbana are required to post a color-coded placard based on health inspection results.

Understanding the new placard system

Under a new notification system that began Jan. 1, restaurants and food establishments in Champaign-Urbana are required to post a color-coded placard based on health inspection results.

Health inspectors from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District issue the placards after completing their inspections

A green placard – or “Satisfactory Compliance” means the restaurant passed with an adjusted score of 36 or above.

A yellow placard – or “Re-inspection required” means the restaurant failed the inspection with an adjusted score between 0 and 35, but is allowed to remain open.

A red placard – or “Closed” – means the restaurant scored below 0 or had a major health violation. Its food service permit is temporarily suspended until violations are corrected.

The Champaign-Urbana Health District approved the new system late last year; Champaign County did not – despite initial approval from the county’s health board.

Health inspectors from the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District issue the placards after completing their inspections.

If a restaurant fails an inspection, meaning it receives a score of 35 or lower out of 100, it is supposed to post a yellow placard in a prominent location. If a restaurant’s score is below zero, it also fails, receiving a red placard to display and closing until violations are corrected. If a restaurant scores above 35, it passes and gets a green placard.

But health inspectors are not requiring failed restaurants to post yellow placards. Instead, restaurants that fail health inspections are allowed to correct enough violations during the inspection to raise their adjusted score to passing.

Prior to Jan. 1, inspectors would not have typically allowed this. Instead, they would conduct a re-inspection within 30 days.

Jim Roberts, environmental health director for the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District, said that through June 30, restaurants that fail inspections with an adjusted score of 0-35 will get a green placard upon making corrections in the restaurant inspector’s presence.

Kurtz, who lost re-election in March for his county seat, owned a Blimpie submarine sandwich shop for 11 years, according to his campaign website.

Despite multiple calls and emails, Kurtz could not be reached for comment on this story.

Adjusted scores are based on a 100-point system with various points deducted for critical violations, non-critical violations and repeat violations. Scores can fall below 0.

“I would call it a period of notification and education,” Roberts said. “Notification that this yellow placard is what could have happened here, and what will happen in the future.”

In the past, if a restaurant fails an inspection, it is re-inspected within 30 days.

Roberts said the grace period was also an opportunity to educate businesses about the foodborne illness risk factors listed on the placard and how to make short- and long-term changes to avoid violations.

From January through March, there were 19 restaurants in the 0-35 adjusted score range – 16 of them would have received a yellow placard since they are located within Champaign and Urbana. Two of the failing restaurants are located in Rantoul. A third is located in Tolono.

Slideshow: Placards Around Town

Click the image to see restaurants around town displaying their placards

Instead, those 19 restaurants got a chance to make corrections as the restaurant inspector was there, with 16 receiving green placards.

Despite the lenience for failing restaurants, those that score below zero on their inspections are still automatically shut down and are required to post red placards visible to customers while closed.

In the three months of the new program, two restaurants were closed and 18 others failed. (See related story.)

Firehaus, 708 S. Sixth St., Champaign, had to post a red placard during its three-day closure, which began on March 19. The restaurant had 11 critical violations and 26 non-critical violations.

“I would hope that with the posting, restaurants would be more diligent in controlling risk factor violations,” Roberts said.

]]>https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/05/01/yellow-placards-go-missing-in-first-six-months-of-new-system/feed/0From 1990 to 2010: Twenty years of extreme poverty in Champaign-Urbanahttps://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/01/09/from-1990-to-2010-twenty-years-of-extreme-poverty-in-champaign-urbana/
https://www.cu-citizenaccess.org/2014/01/09/from-1990-to-2010-twenty-years-of-extreme-poverty-in-champaign-urbana/#commentsThu, 09 Jan 2014 20:41:31 +0000http://cu-citizenaccess.org/?p=1001746Extreme poverty is defined as those incomes that are less than half of the defined poverty income.

The maps below look at extreme poverty in 1990, 2000 and 2010 in the Champaign-Urbana area using census data.